Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-11 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Imagine an uneven procession of gallows. To each is tied one or two victims who have not yet met their intended fates.
These images, the product of too many Hollywood horror scripts, recur when thoughts turn to those tormented souls who await their fates on this, the last regular-season night of the high school football season.
These anxiety-ridden sufferers are waiting to see if they will walk through the pearly gates into the Virginia High School League playoffs that begin next week. They still have a chance, but their futures reside in the dispassionate hands of others.
And the tormented slowly turn in the breeze, awaiting a kind hand to cut them free so they may join the parade into the playoffs.
At Radford High tonight, the agony is only increasing. The Bobcats, winners of seven and losers of two this year, must beat Auburn. The challenge is well within the abilities of Radford's players.
But that is not all. Even if the Bobcats devour the Eagles, as most would expect, the deal is not sealed.
For the outcome of other games could determine what will come next for the swiftly beating hearts beneath the Bobcat black and gold.
The most crucial of these clashes will involve Narrows' invasion of Fort Chiswell. If the Green Wave drowns the Pioneers, Radford is in the Group A Division 2 postseason on its first attempt. If the Fort stands firm, Radford must await dispatches from elsewhere.
The points system that determines wild-card entries into the playoffs is so complex that the outcome of games involving such diverse teams as Blacksburg, Tazewell, Lebanon, Patrick Henry of Glade Spring, Galax, Christiansburg, William Byrd and others will influence Radford's situation.
It did not have to be so complicated. Radford could have chosen its own path had it beaten Powell Valley or Giles. Such was not the case. Nobody knew the uncertainties that would ensue any better than veteran Radford coach Norman Lineburg as he stood before interrogators after the loss to Giles at midseason.
Lineburg, bravely battling his misery, had retreated for privacy into the walk-in showers used by visiting teams. Intensity of pain had left his players to face their torment in various postures of defeat, too wrung out to make the short hike to the showers. There Lineburg stood, dry of body but not necessarily of eye.
"I don't think we can make the playoffs now," he had said.
Lineburg, as it turned out, made the classic sporting mistake. He had declared it over before it was over.
As Radford was winning the rest of its games, so were other teams. At length, the Bobcats were back in the playoff chase.
These developments were meticulously charted by Radford statisticians, each implication indexed and analyzed until a brighter picture came into focus. That chore, Lineburg left to others.
"I'm not smart enough to figure this stuff out," he said in typically droll and self-effacing fashion.
He was referring to the points system. Lineburg always has been plenty smart enough to do what it takes to get a football team ready for battle.
Still, he jousted with worry. To a point.
"In my position, and as old as I've become, I try not to let anything interfere with football," he said. "That's my best time of day and what I look forward to."
Maybe now, at last somebody will step forward and slice Lineburg and his followers free of their tree of doom.
"Selfishly," said he, "I want us to go as far as we can go."
Ray Cox covers high school sports for the New River Valley bureau of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
by CNB